Most households own too many bags and the wrong ones. A cupboard with six pieces in it usually turns out to hold three that overlap, two that were bought for a trip that never repeated, and one that gets used for everything. A kit is the opposite of that: the smallest set of bags that covers the trips actually taken, chosen so that each one does something the others cannot.
The way to build it is to list the trips first and the bags second. Most people take between two and four recognizable kinds of trip, and each kind has one constraint that decides the bag.
Start with the constraint, not the bag
Every trip type has one thing that fails first if the bag is wrong. On an overnight it is whether the bag fits under a seat, because a bag that has to go in an overhead defeats the point of traveling light. On a short cabin trip it is the measured exterior size, because that is what a gate agent checks. On a business trip it is whether a suit arrives wearable. On a long trip it is weight, because checked allowances are enforced by scale. On a family trip it is how many hands are available to pull how many bags.
Pick the bag that solves that one constraint and the rest of the specification follows. Note throughout that cabin size and weight allowances differ by airline, by route and by fare, and that no bag can be relied on to satisfy a carrier the traveler has not checked with directly.
The overnight and the personal item
One night away with a laptop is the most common business trip and the one most often over equipped. The bag needs to hold a change of clothes, a laptop, documents and a charger, and it needs to go under a seat.
Two designs solve it differently. The bag in the Briggs and Riley ZDX underseat cabin bag review is built around the technology load, with a separate tech compartment holding a padded pocket for a 15 inch laptop or a 13 inch tablet, a battery pouch and a cord pass, plus a shielded quick access pocket for cards. The case in the Take OFF personal item rolling suitcase review takes the opposite approach, with wheels that detach so the same shell can be presented as a rolling case or as a soft personal item depending on what the airline in question allows.
Either is a better answer than pressing a full size cabin case into overnight service, because a 20 inch spinner will not go under a seat and has to be surrendered to the bin.
The two to four night cabin trip
This is the bag that gets used most, so it is worth buying carefully and it is the last place to economize on wheels and handles.
The decisive number is the exterior dimension including wheels and handles. Travelpro publishes both figures on the case in the Platinum Elite carry on review, giving 23 by 14.5 by 9 inches overall and 21 by 14 by 9 inches for the case itself, and it also states that the expansion may take the bag outside airline restrictions when used. That is the level of disclosure worth insisting on, since a listing that gives only one number leaves the buyer guessing which one a sizer will read.
Structure is the other variable. The case in the LUGGEX zipperless carry on review uses an aluminum frame and latches instead of a zipper, which removes the weakest point on a soft closure and costs weight in exchange, at a listed 8.6 pounds. A frame is worth considering for anyone whose bags get checked at the gate frequently, since a frame does not split.
The trip with a suit in it
A garment bag is the only kind of luggage bought for one specific outcome, which is that clothing arrives without creases. There are two ways to get there and they suit different trips.
A dedicated garment bag hangs the clothes full length or folds them once. The bag in the Samsonite Ascella 3.0 garment bag review is a wheeled version with a hanger bracket that grips in two directions, which is a small detail that decides whether a full set of hangers stays put. Wheeled garment bags are heavy for their volume, so they suit trips where the suit is the point.
The alternative is a folder that lives inside an existing case. Thule states that the folder in the Thule garment folder review holds up to twelve items and fits inside most carry on luggage. For someone who travels in a suit twice a year, a folder in the cabin case is a more sensible purchase than a dedicated bag that lives in a cupboard the rest of the time. Anyone weighing the two approaches will find both represented in the garment bags category.
The week or more, checked
Once a bag goes in the hold, weight replaces size as the binding constraint, and empty weight is the part decided at purchase. A large checked case that weighs eleven pounds empty has spent a fifth of a typical fifty pound allowance before anything is packed.
The case in the Samsonite Omni 2 28 inch review is described by its maker at 10.8 pounds with exterior dimensions of 30.4 by 20.9 by 12.4 inches including wheels. Those two numbers together are the entire specification that matters on a checked bag. Everything else on a large case is refinement.
When the trip is gear rather than clothes
Sports equipment, camping kit and photographic gear do not pack into a rectangular hardside case efficiently, because the objects are the wrong shapes. A rolling duffel is the better tool, and the one in the TPRC Sierra Madre II rolling duffel review is listed at 141.5 liters of volume, which is a size that only makes sense when the contents are bulky and light. A duffel of that size filled with dense items will exceed a checked weight allowance long before it is full.
The family trip
The constraint here is hands, not volume. Two adults with three children cannot pull five bags, so the kit has to consolidate. One large checked case per adult and one small rolling case per child who is old enough to pull it is the arrangement that works, and the children’s cases should be sized to the child rather than to the trip.
Ride on designs solve a different problem, which is a tired child in a long terminal. The case in the Fast Forward kids ride on suitcase review is described by its maker as intended for children aged two to six, with a seat and an angled extendable handle. Age guidance and weight limits are the specifications to check on any ride on case, and where a listing does not publish them, they should be requested before ordering. The kids’ luggage category spans a wide age range under one label, so the published age range matters more than the size.
The parts that are not bags
Two small things finish a kit. Every piece needs identification that does not print a home address, carried on a loop that survives a conveyor, which is what the steel loops in the Mziart luggage tag loops review are for. And every piece needs its weight known, because the allowance is enforced on the total, not on the bag.
The kit in one line
For most travelers it is three bags: an underseat bag for overnights, a cabin case for short trips, and one large checked case for the long ones, with a garment folder added if suits are involved and a child sized case added per child. Anything beyond that is duplication, and duplication in luggage is expensive in cupboard space and in the temptation to pack a larger bag than the trip needs.
